Dawna (Hall) Kraus would love to start defending her national crown in diesel drag racing right now, except for one minor detail: her dragster is in about 1,001 pieces as we speak. And that’s give or take a couple dozen.

Dawna Kraus' Top Diesel Dragster, which she drove to a NHRDA championship last fall.(Photo: SUBMITTED BY DAWNA KRAUS)

But once her and her crew gets that puzzle figured out and put together, diesel dragster drivers (say that fast three times!) in the other lane need to be on notice: she’s going to defend her title, one way or the other.

"(My dragster) ran on alcohol previously, but we're changed it completely over to diesel<' Kraus said. "Top diesel is the fastest class in the diesel ranks.

"We have cars that run in the six-second range, and the fastest speed is 227 (miles per hour)."

One of her sponsors, Industrial Injection in Salt Lake City, is building of 2,500-horsepower motor for the coming season (which officially started last Month in Chandler, Ariz., and is headed to Sacramento next weekend).

Dawna drives a top diesel dragster to the National Hot Rod Diesel Association (NHRDA) national championship six months ago, at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, a suburb of Dallas-Ft. Worth (not to be confused with Ennis, Mont.). She’s been in the NHRDA since 2012 and has won nine national events as well as the national cup last October.

Her winning time was seven seconds, at 190 MPH.

"The NHRDA is our sanctioning body for diesel dragsters," Dawna explained, saying that the NHRDA and the NHRA are two separate entities, and she and her husband are sanctioned by both organizations.

"I can go run in NHRA, and I do," Dawna added. "I can run a top fuel dragster."

Both Dawna (an auto insurance field appraiser) and her husband Ken have their roots in the NHRA as well. Ken has driven a top alcohol funny car for Synoil Racing and the late Geoff Goodwin of Red Deer, Alta., for the past 10 years, and is currently at the controls of an alcohol nostalgia funny car for Spokane’s Mark Aguiar. Dawna has been licensed as an alcohol dragster driver since 1995 and drives an alcohol funny car as well.

Her crew consists of Ken, Aguiar, and Craig Bender of Great Falls.

Dawna, the daughter of Punky Squires and the late Don Hall (Hall Transit), and Ken (Pat and the late Jim Kraus) have owned Auto World on Ninth Street North for 30 years. One specialty of Auto World is installation of Cummins diesel engines in Fords, Chevys, Jeeps, Hummers, and – of course – Dawna’s dragster.

Ken has more that happy to show this columnist the power source for Dawna's car, which was also torn apart with the heads removed. It looks a lot like your standard straight-6-cylinder automobile engine, except there's no spark plugs on a diesel engine.

He said they're basically in uncharted waters: "Because we're in such a new territory, we just can't call up the manufacturer and ask them, "What happened here?'", Ken Kraus said. "And they look and say, 'Never saw that before.

"We're learning a lot, and it's all a lot of experimental stuff."

The plan is to have the car ready and running by June 9, in time for the Diesels on the Mountain race at the Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo.

There are also races in Clay City, Ky. (June 22-23); Nisku, Alta. (Aug. 11), then the Big Sky Truck Fest at the Yellowstone Dragstrip in Acton Aug. 24-25, the last race before the NHRDA World Finals Oct. 12-13 in Ennis, Texas.

Sports Writer Lee Vernoy's column about the faces and places of Montana Sports appears in this slot most Mondays. Email lvernoy@greatfallstribune.com, or call (406) 791-6569.